Headline, Portrait of the automotive mechanic industry
MARIE-ÈVE DUSSAULT, IN INITIATION MODE
By Raynald Bouchard
What could be more comforting for a business owner than to have his or her own successor on the spot, providing them with all the tools they’ll need to take over the management of the organization when the time comes?
This is exactly what Gaétan Dussault, President and Purchasing Director of Groupe Du-So, one of the largest parts stores in the national capital, is experiencing. His daughter Marie-Ève has been in the learning process for the past 10 years, leading her to the head of the company. Her father is currently introducing her to the buying side of the business, the cornerstone of an automotive parts store.
Groupe Du-So employs some fifty people, divided between the head office and three other branches in the greater Québec City area. “Each and every one of them—parts and warehouse clerks, dispatchers and delivery drivers—is well aware that their functions are interrelated with those of the others,” adds Marie-Ève.
Computerized Inventories
Older employees will recall the stacks of documents a clerk had constantly in front of them, talking to a workshop employee to identify and deliver available parts. “With over a million dollars in inventory,” she says, “computerization has greatly improved the process.”
“The most important part of my apprenticeship, and one that requires a lot of interpersonal skills, is establishing good business relationships with our suppliers, in particular our Uni-Sélect brand, on whom we depend for supplies and who depend on us through our garage customers.”
Lastly, in order to be able to take care of her seven-month-old Laura, Marie-Ève is taking a year’s maternity leave, which will end this summer.
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